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Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (И́горь Васи́льевич Курча́тов) ( January 8, 1903 – February 7, 1960) was the leader of the Soviet Atomic bomb program. Kurchatov was born in Chelyabinsk. He studied physics at Crimea State University and ship building at the Polytechnical Institute in Petrograd. In 1925 he moved to the Physico-Technical Institute, where he worked (under Abram Fedorovich Ioffe) on various problems connected with radioactivity. In 1932 he received funding for his own nuclear science research team, which built the Soviet Union's first cyclotron.
When, in 1941, war broke out between Germany and the USSR, Kurchatov switched his researches first to protecting shipping from magnetic mines, and later to tank armour. In 19431943 is the common year starting on Friday. Events January January 4 End of term for Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Earl Warren. January 11 The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China. January 1 the NKVDBoris Vladimirski, a depiction of the cars used by NKVD agents. Curiously, this painting was approved by Stalin's censors. The Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (or NKVD People's Commisariat for Interior Affairs, was the name for the state security in obtained a copy of a secret British report concerning the feasability of atomic weapons, which led Stalin to order the commencement of a Soviet programme (albeit with very limited resources). Ioffe recommended Kurchatov to MolotovMolotov can mean: Vyacheslav Molotov was a Soviet politician Molotov is a Mexican HipHop group Molotov cocktail is a weapon., and Kurchatov was appointed director of the nascent programme later that year. The bomb project remained a relatively low priority until information from spy Klaus FuchsEmil Julius Klaus Fuchs (b. December 29, 1911, Russelsheim, Germany d. January 28, 1988, East Berlin, East Germany) was a German physicist who was convicted of surreptitiously supplying information on the British and American atomic bomb research to the U and later the destruction of HiroshimaFor the town that was formerly named Hiroshima in Hokkaido, see Kitahiroshima. Hiroshima City (; -shi) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Japan. It is best known throughout the world as the first and Nagasaki goaded Stalin into action. Stalin ordered Kurchatov to produce a bomb by 19481948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). Events January January 1 Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Ital, and put the ruthless Lavrenty BeriaLavrenty Pavlovich Beria ( Russian: ) ( 29 March, 1899 23 December, 1953), Soviet politician and police chief, is remembered chiefly as the executor of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s, although in fact he presided only over the closing stages of in direct command of the project. The project took over the town of Sarov in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast on the Volga, and renamed it Arzamas-16. The team (which included other prominent Soviet nuclear scientists such as Julii Borisovich Khariton and Iakov Borisovich Zeldovich) was assisted both by public disclosures made by the US government and by further information supplied by Fuchs, but Kurchatov and Beria (fearing the intelligence was misinformation) insisted his scientists retest everything themselves. Beria in particular would use the intelligence as a third-party check on the conclusions of the teams of scientists.
On August 29th 1949 the team detonated First Lightning , its initial test device (a plutonium implosion bomb) at the Semipalatinsk Test Site; Kurchatov later remarked that his main feeling at the time was one of relief, as he was confident that had the weapon failed, Stalin would have had him shot.
Kurchatov subsequently worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb program ( 1953), but later worked for the peaceful use of nuclear technology, and advocated against nuclear bomb tests.
During the A-bomb programme, Kurchatov swore he wouldn't cut his beard until the program succeeded, and he continued to wear a large beard (often cut into eccentric styles) for the remainder of his life, earning him the nickname "The Beard". Kurchatov died in Moscow in 1960.
